The romances are a very small part of those games you mention. I don't see how it can be a deal breaker?!. hey I vote yes for having romances in this game!, if you don't like it, just ignore them. (everyone's happy) but the deal from what I understand was that they didn't feel like they could do it right, so they skipped it. Id rather have cast of well written cast of none romance-able NPC's, than a shallow half ass written romance.